Life and Travel in China

I recently had the opportunity to take the high-speed train from Guangzhou to YueYang. A few years ago, traveling by ordinary train, the journey took exactly 12 hours. Now lasts 3 hours! The train travels at a maximum of 350 km/h, average speed is approximately 270 km/h. Interestingly, all new infrastructure was built, this line has no connection with the old railway network at all. New, huge and truly stunning stations were built. The South Station in Guangzhou looks better than any airport in Poland! Of course, I will present the photos in the gallery. The railways have invested in all these innovations, but this does not mean that passengers travel for free! Here the railway is profitable and people pay quite a lot for tickets. A trip from Guangzhou to YueYang (about 850 km) by super-fast train (300-340 km/h) costs PLN 200. A trip from Guangzhou to Shenzhen (about 100 km) by high-speed train (160-210 km/h) costs PLN 40. In Poland, we are used to the fact that the railway is unprofitable, it has to be maintained and subsidized. What if we invested in modern rolling stock, shortened the journey from Krakow to the seaside to 3 hours, provided passengers with a safe journey, comfortable trains and modern and clean stations, would the railway be profitable and would there be more passengers?! Certainly yes, not only from Poland, but from all over Europe! Well, of course we don't even have money to invest in anything! And China had surpluses of steel and other materials that were not exported outside the country, and that's how the high-speed railway was created.

The first information from a village in Hunan concerns drug dealers! Surprising, right? Anyone who has been to China knows that drug addiction is not a common problem. It applies rather to provinces and larger cities, you don't see many drug addicts, and they certainly don't walk the streets or stations. However, it turns out that some people, even in the countryside, earn a lot of money from drug trafficking. Next to my in-laws' house, a family built a large house, a classical-style entrance with golden columns, large windows, mosaics on the walls, and a high floor. As it turns out, they earned this money by selling illegal stimulants. Theoretically, such a practice is punishable by death. All neighbors and even family know about their profession. The police probably know about it too, but the protection and bribery system probably works very well here. The guy was already arrested and was facing the death penalty, but he got out of it. The owner of the new house wanted to invite the family to something like our housewarming party, but the family ignored him, they are simply ashamed of the criminal in the family.

Another neighbor in a village in Hunan can't be too proud of her daughter. The girl got married and she and her boyfriend moved somewhere to Guangdong province. They have a child. After some time, this girl met another man, a richer one. She did not divorce her husband, but moved in with her lover. Later she also took her child. The guy pays her about PLN 1,500 a month and supports her this way. Of course, the husband knows everything and sometimes even uses the money received by his wife-lover-maintainer.

We recently met an interesting man on a bus in Hong Kong. We only made a few stops, but that was enough for a new adventure! Two men came to the door, one of them looked like a madman. The second one is about 45 years old, slim, with glasses. He came to our seats and smiled, when our eyes met he said:
- How are you?
"Okay, thanks," I replied.
- Where are you from?
- From Poland.
After thinking for a moment, he asked another question:
- Are you a Christian?
I said yes. The Chinese man said that he was also the leader of a church. When he found out that I lived in Shenzhen, he started speaking in Mandarin, and after a while, to our surprise, he started singing and waving his hands. He made all sorts of waves, gesticulated and sang something in Chinese about happiness being everywhere because it's like a flower. The atmosphere calmed down and my wife and I started commenting on it in Polish. Overall it was a rough ride. The song lasted about two minutes, and the bus stopped in a traffic jam. Then he returned to the topic of religion: - How long have you believed in Jesus? I told him that for a long time, since birth, that religion is a tradition in our country, that we have believed in Christ for over a thousand years. Later, our crazy bus passenger started talking in English again, but I didn't understand him much and I didn't listen to him, and my wife was shocked by his song. He said something about young businessmen, etc. Finally, the bus pulled up to the stop and the guy said goodbye to us, shook his hand and got off. As you can see, you can find idiots everywhere! I'm not making fun of his religion or his questions, because you can talk to anyone, but this song is a bit of an exaggeration!

Coming back to the topic of religion in China. Generally, most Chinese people are atheists. Some people are faithful to some family beliefs, but they do not particularly practice any religion. There is also a group of Buddhists, Taoists and various varieties of Christians. It often depends on location, colonial influence, family history, etc. There are no general and uniform factors that determine the beliefs of the average Chinese. However, I met some downright haunted people. The guy from Hong Kong mentioned above is such an example. I have this sad feeling that some Asians simply find religion harmful! Some time ago I was talking to a girl who also touched on the topic of religion. She said she was a Christian. I asked if she was Catholic, or maybe Protestant, or maybe Orthodox? She couldn't answer. She stated that she was a Christian and that they met twice a week in the so-called house church and studied the Bible. She asked me about a song honoring Jesus?! I mentioned something about the Pope and the Vatican - she said she wasn't that interested. As if their church was not subject to the Vatican. After some time, I realized that she only wanted to talk about Jesus and religion. It wasn't about some parables, about faith itself, about the history of religion, but about some platitudes. As if this faith was some western fashion for them?! I'm not criticizing them, but I have the impression that many Chinese people are very confused about religion, and for some it's even an obsession. The truth is that they have hungry and empty stomachs. They are already saturated with material goods, they have money, apartments and cars, but they lack something else. The problem is that they can't define it and have no idea. And religion is not a hobby, you can't just search for it on the Internet, buy equipment, find friends and practice it! However, this is probably related to tradition, family, upbringing, history, and all this was largely destroyed by the communist government and cannot be rebuilt so easily. In my opinion, the Chinese should cherish their beliefs and traditions, and not foolishly adopt patterns from the West, like: "Let's open a Starbucks and be Catholic, because it's cool!"